Every once in while, will get a crack at a collaboration it’s never done before and like it’ll never get to do so ever again. Few sets in recent history have felt like that quite like the company’s big . io9 gathered a party of one to take a crack at the Red Dragon’s tale, and found dungeons, dragons, and plenty more besides. clocks in at a whopping 3,745 pieces—almost two-thirds the size of Lego’s epic-scaled from last year. Depending on your experience, the set could take you 15-20 hours over the course of a weekend, but a good aspect of the set is that it’s built in relatively modular steps: it can be broken down into the inn, the forest ruins, the dungeon, the tower, and then finally Cinderhowl the red dragon, so there’s natural stopping points if you get a bit square-eyed from sorting Lego bricks. Otherwise, slap on an actual play stream or two and get building. Or just watch like, 10 times in a row. It’s . Depending on what “counts” in your eyes, there are six main minifigures in the set. Four represent class and background archetypes from —complete with alternate heads to depict alternate genders, and in some cases, accessories to display different equipment loadouts—and two more represent characters in the “story” of the set (more on that later). But there’s actually a few more full minifigures beyond that in the form of three skeletons to act as minions and set dressing—and then of course there’s a few buildable creatures on top of that, too, so you’re getting a lot of characters no matter which way you slice it. e has a lot of small parts, and clever little moments of Lego engineering to compact a lot of small scenes and bits of design into a relatively tight space. It’s not necessarily , but it is certainly fiddly in places, depending on how meticulous you want to be placing down foliage or stepping stones just so. If you’re not super familiar with Lego’s modern adult-focused builds, there’s nothing too particularly complex about any of the steps—and again, the nature of the set being able to be split into distinct parts makes it easy to create stopping points in your build process. Red Dragon’s Tale doesn’t really do much new for seasoned Lego collectors—there’s a lot of fun techniques along the way, but nothing that’s particularly out there if you’re used to building Lego’s modern, large scale sets like this. The more overt push into deliberate fantasy almost certainly will have some Lego Castle/Medieval fans grumbling, but considering they’ve had some pretty excellent sets in the last few years, it’s fine to throw a Myconid or two into the mix here, and the set still looks “traditional” enough it could certainly slip into any collection of that line. But Red Dragon’s Tale really shines for anyone with even a passing familiarity with —there’s tons of small details in the set that pull from across the game’s lore, and the story of the set focusing on an adventuring party going out from town and into the wilderness to delve dungeons and assault a dragon’s keep is really told well throughout the set. That’s even before you get into the actual real deal bonus for fans: Red Dragon’s Tale comes with a downloadable digital adventure for 5th edition that lets players run a small session inspired by the narrative of the set, so you can build it, and then use it as a display piece for an actual RPG session! At a whopping $360, is a lofty ask for fans. There’s a lot to love in the set, but a few frustrations (more on those later), but overall it’s a very solid build with a lot of fun details and Easter eggs, but there’s nothing that stands out to make it a must-buy set right now. Well, there is one thing: a delightful “gift with purchase” buildable Mimic, but considering it’s currently unavailable in the U.S.—and you could only get it buying the set directly from Lego for a limited time—that’s really only one less reason to pick it up right now. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but if you’re not particularly interested in the theme, and with the huge amount of Lego out right now, it might be worth holding off for a sale down the line. Click through to see more of our thoughts
BREAKING down the set section by section—and plenty more pictures to boot. 2 / 27 Player’s Handbook Player’s Handbook Here’s the four main minifigures included in the set, forming the adventuring party: an Elf Wizard, a Gnome Fighter, an Orc Rogue, and a Dwarf Cleric. 3 / 27 Character Creation Character Creation While you can’t really change up the races beyond what’s included, each figure comes with an alternate head to swap (and in the case of the Dwarf, extra facial hair) that has alternate gender features to tweak each character. The Gnome and Orc also have options for alternate weapon loadouts, like dual-wielding, and in a fun but tiny detail for clicks, the Wizard has alternate scrolls to slot into their spellbook to learn—one design evoking Fireball, the other seemingly looking a bit like Protection From Good and Evil. 4 / 27 Monster Manual Monster Manual As well as the minifigures—and perhaps arguably even the highlight over them—the set includes multiple buildable creatures from across ’s bestiary to pepper throughout the set. As well as the aforementioned skeletons there’s a couple of Myconids, a Gelatinous Cube (its innards already holding a poor skeleton’s bits, a frying pan, and a gemstone), a Displacer Beast, an Owlbear, and perhaps best of all, an Beholder. I would’ve bought that as a standalone set honestly! There’s a few more creatures built into the set too, like spiders (not quite giant, not quite regular sized, even for a Lego minifigure), a few black puddings, and even a living tree. 5 / 27 Dungeon Master’s Guide Dungeon Master’s Guide What’s a adventure without a few NPCs for the party to talk to along the way? The last two “proper” minifigures in the set represent the only two named characters from the accompanying adventure book: Alax Jadescales, the Dragonborn and former proprietor of the local inn, and his replacement, Merry Rumwell. Merry includes an alternate head so they can be presented as either masculine or feminine. 6 / 27 Here Be Dragons Here Be Dragons The final buildable creature is, of course, the titular Red Dragon: Cinderhowl! Cinderhowl has moving legs and arms, as well as movable wings (made with large fabric pieces) and a massive articulated tail, and can even have
fire added to its mouth to present a jet of flame. It’s a hefty model, and could’ve almost been its own set. 7 / 27 A Bonus Gift A Bonus Gift It’s not part of the set, but it was too good not to mention: purchasing Red Dragon’s Tale directly from Lego while supplies lasted (which was not very long, admittedly) meant you also got this fabulous model of a Mimic treasure box, mid-transformation. It’s absolutely fantastic... 8 / 27 What’s in the Box? What’s in the Box? And actually useful, unlike a nearly 4,000-brick replica of a castle ruin and dragon! The Mimic has a hinged “jaw” so it can be used as a box—specifically noted as a dice box. I didn’t have usual TTRPG dice on hand, so I borrowed the collector’s edition’s oversized D20, and a few D6 for display purposes. 9 / 27 Part One: The Inn Part One: The Inn The build starts as any good adventure does: with the inn. This is Inn Plain Sight, because puns are lovely—as is the color scheme here, bright tiled roofing going along with the more traditionally medieval construction. There’s even a small dock off to the left, perfect for, say, any more scrupulous rogues to skulk about on. 10 / 27 Ground Floor Ground Floor The ground floor of the inn is the tavern, and although it’s cramped, you can just about get the six main minifigures in here. It’s packed with fun details, from potions and bottles, to foaming ales and even a weapons rack filled with alternate gear for the party. 11 / 27 Second Floor Second Floor The second, somehow even more cramped floor houses a very tiny bedchamber for a guest. There’s no stairs leading up to it unlike the other multi-floor areas of the build, and it gets even more cramped with the reveal that the bed and storage chest are, in fact, mimics! 12 / 27 The Forest... The Forest... The party will walk out of Inn Plain Sight to start their adventure here, in a small forested opening. There’s a ton of fun details here, like the multiple paths to different destinations, all the small details and creatures, and the transition from the path from the inn, into the forest, and into ruins and even the coast are all really nicely done. 13 / 27 ... And Its Ruins ... And Its Ruins Flipping the section around reveals a small cave area—ripe with not just new loot for your characters to find, like a shield, a flail, and even a new staff for the Wizard, but also a few oozing enemies., as well as a pathway up into the ruins. It’s not quite as well designed being a simple ladder over the natural stone steps round the front, but hey, you take what you can get out adventuring. 14 / 27 Hidden Treasures Hidden Treasures The set is just jam-packed with things for people to roll perception checks on—from traps to little hidden loot stashes all over the place, like this deftly hidden pile of gold and a key. 15 / 27 The Dungeon The Dungeon Approachable from multiple pathways (something that, presumably, comes up in the included adventure) the base of the spire has this cool spiral staircase, and plenty space for a scrap. Sadly, the swinging axe trap on the door on the left, while movable, doesn’t actually stay stuck up before you activate it, rendering it pretty useless as a trap. 16 / 27 The Tower The Tower Atop the dungeon is an impressive, albeit dilapidated spire. There’s lots of very fun greebling detail here. 17 / 27 Secrets Within Secrets Within Turning around reveals a ton of fun details—on the ground floor, where you can emerge from either across the ruin’s bridge or from the spiral staircase below, there’s a trap door, and higher up there’s a creepy study and on top of that, a mystery: green-flame candles surrounding a dragon egg... 18 / 27 Praise Tiamat! Praise Tiamat! And perhaps most interesting of all is this little shrine in there too: a nod to the legendary villainous dragon goddess, the five-headed chromatic beast Tiamat. Creepy study? Eldritch flame and a dragon egg? Altar to an evil dragon goddess? Someone’s up to no good around here... 19 / 27 A Villainous Reveal A Villainous Reveal Because Merry Rumwell is, with a twist of their head and a few more accessories, in fact the evil Sorcerer Ervan Soulfallen! Here they are with the remaining minifigures of the set: three skeletons with various bits of gear of their own. 20 / 27 The Final Model, Front... The Final Model, Front... While the model can be split apart into the aforementioned sections, all together it really does look great. 21 / 27 ... And Back ... And Back Around back you really get to see just how well the set transitions between its different biomes, with lots of clever gradual details like the greebled cliff face around the dungeon’s exterior. 22 / 27 The Dragon Descends The Dragon Descends Of course, you’ve gotta have that dragon somewhere, and based on the box art and the original design idea for this set—inspired by to celebrate ’s 50th anniversary—Cinderhowl is meant to be displayed with their tail wrapped around the tower, peering over their domain from the ruins. It looks great... you get it balanced in just the right pose. There’s no specific way to place Cinderhowl on the model, and no clear areas to “click” the model down and lock it into a good place, so you’re relying on posing their legs just right and nailing the balancing act. For the most part, when it’s in place, it won’t easily fall off, but considering the limited articulation of the legs, it’s largely the tail and the front feet keeping Cinderhowl from ruining hours of your precious work—a way to secure the dragon down onto the model, even if it restricted posing a bit, would’ve been much more preferable, especially for a set with so many tiny parts you can easily knock about while trying to position the dragon. so for a very expensive set! Now that you’ve seen the set and figures, we’ll leave you with a few more pictures to give you an idea of the story behind Red Dragon’s Tale—which is from Lego. 23 / 27 A Busy Inn A Busy Inn 24 / 27 Venture Forth Venture Forth 25 / 27 Dungeon Delving Dungeon Delving 26 / 27 Assaulting the Keep Assaulting the Keep 27 / 27